2007, but the president was talking about a conversation the country was having, but even president bush was talking about the socioeconomic situation that happened after hurricane katrina. they're very desperate at this time. how many times have we heard there's a shocker coming out and it ends up being a nonstory. that's one thing. the second idea was to send the message to the base of the party, you know, they like those dog whistles. i don't think mitt romney will be able to do that effectively during the course of the debate, because in the debate he has to try to appeal to the middle. i think they wanted to get a little something out there for the base, so is that they would have -- so that today they could be, you know, talking about that horrible, you know, barack obama, the black man, in advance of the debate. >> yeah, absolutely, shock, horror, barack obama is a black man. michael, i've read your outstanding piece in which you talk about the fact that the process of fact-checking by voters has actually declined. it's almost a suggestion we've had so many lies through this campa